Share

Circuit of the Americas claimed a race day crowd of more than 117,000, and the packed stands and general admission areas suggested that the figure was accurate.

Hamilton won in style after chasing down and passing Sebastian Vettel, who heads into the final race in Brazil with a 13-point advantage over Fernando Alonso, who finished third. Meanwhile Red Bull Racing secured its third consecutive constructors' championship.

There was controversy before the start when Ferrari earned a five-place grid penalty for Felipe Massa by breaking the FIA seal on his gearbox. That promoted Fernando Alonso from eighth to seventh, on the favored clean side of the grid.

It paid off when Alonso made a great start to emerge from the first corner in fourth place behind only Vettel, Mark Webber and Hamilton, the last named having lost a place from the dirty side. Alonso couldn't match the pace of the other two, and soon dropped back.

Hamilton managed to get past Webber to reclaim second, and the rest of the race was a cat-and-mouse game as Hamilton pushed Vettel hard, the gap varying by a few tenths with traffic. The situation continued after their single pit stops, but on the harder prime tires Hamilton seemed to finds a little extra. On lap 42 he was able to use DRS to draft past Vettel, who had too much to lose by fighting back too aggressively. Hamilton reeled off the remaining 14 laps without problem.

“The fans have been amazing this weekend, so thank you so much,” Hamilton told the crowd from the podium. “The warm welcome we've had has been fantastic and I think this is probably one of the best, if not the best, Grand Prix we've had all year. Especially for me and my team, this is so special. It's been a long, long time since I had a win and I'm just so proud, so proud of the work the guys did, so grateful for the support we've had.”

Webber retired on lap 17 after yet another Renault alternator failure, but fortunately for Red Bull, there was no repeat on Vettel's car. His demise guaranteed Alonso third and some priceless points as he finished some 38 behind Hamilton.

After being demoted to 11th on the grid by the penalty Massa drove a strong race to climb to fourth. He finished ahead of Jenson Button, who started only 12th after a throttle problem in qualifying and started on the harder prime tire. He worked his way up the order with a long first stint to claim a solid fifth place.

Kimi Raikkonen ran fifth for much of the race but ultimately slipped back to sixth. He was followed home by teammate Romain Grosjean, who was forced to make his pit stop early after he spun and flat spotted his tires. The final points went to Nico Hulkenberg, Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna.

Watched by a large number of his countrymen Sergio Perez could finish only 11th, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Rosberg, and Kamui Kobayashi.